Hey all. With Record Store Day a month away, I gotta admit...pretty disappointed to not see any Opeth releases included, especially since it seems to be pretty much guaranteed for most of the past 10 years.
I was really hoping for Deliverance and/or Damnation to get announced, but as always, it was wishful thinking.
I lack those 2, Heritage and GR from completing my studio album collection. What are you guys still missing? I wish I had begun collecting their work on vinyl when I became a fan, but I'm doing pretty well for not going super crazy.

Me(19M) and my gf (19F) have been dating for over 3 years now. It started when we both were in the same batch of our coaching classes. Both of us were preparing for an entrance exam.
Everything was good with the exception of some issues which I think every couple has. Ours was mostly very less communication. Like both of us used to assume a lot of things without talking to the other person. And i don't mean to say that it was only her problem but she really didn't communicate with me a lot. Like if anything hurt her she wouldn't tell me and would just leave it till i guessed it. On the other hand I would mostly just tell her what's bothering me.
After about 2 years of classes and giving the exam. Both of us really didn't have anything to talk about. I had thought about this a few times earlier as well but didn't pay much heed into it. After the exam we began arguing a lot and one day she again just assumed something over a little stimulus. Like "you didn't react the way I wanted so you must not like me" type of thing.
I got really angry and just said that I am done with this. Yes it was my fault that I didn't talk about this and just reacted impulsively. At the same time I had tried talking about this before but nothing seemed to change so I just stopped saying.
Then idk even after breaking up she just kept on texting me when I had told her to just stop texting me as I couldn't bring myself to block her. And then texting led to her being intimate with me over text and video calls. At the same time I started texting some other people. She told me that if you are texting someone just tell me. I don't have any issue with you talking to someone just tell me so I stop being intimate with you.
I didn't tell her and thus i broke her trust.
Now we both got into the same college and everything seemed fine. We started getting closer again. I had stopped texting other people like 2 months before our college began. But the texts were still there.
We both were taking about getting back together and it all seemed really fine till she came across some texts of me asking someone to come over And thus began a long stream of trust issues and she basically saying that she feels used coz at the same time when she was being intimate i was texting other people as well.
I apologized profusely and said that I understand if you don't want to get back together after this but if you do I will try my best to work this out.
Eventually we got back together but now everything is changed. She doesn't show any type of affection. It started with her not liking when I tried to hold her hand which otherwise she loved when I did it in our early phases. And she stopped initiating anything. Basically just stopped showing any type of physical affection.
We talked coz i used to get frustrated ( which i have realised is not a good reaction) which led to lot more arguments. I then just said that it's fine if you don't want to show any physical affection coz i understand why you don't want to. But then maybe you should show affection by other means like word of affirmation or through some other actions. She agreed
But that didn't happen. I have brought this up a lot of times with it always ending with the same conclusion and she saying that I make her feel like a shitty gf by saying that you don't do this or that.
I now have just stopped saying anything and just go with whatever she wants to do. I am basically just in the relationship and waiting for her to do something to which i react appropriately. Okay you wanna talk i will talk. Okay you want to touch my hand okay I will touch your hand. We don't show any type of affection in front of our friends. We behave like normal friends which is fine to some extent but then idk if it's wrong to expect some different/special treatment in front of others.
I don't know how to navigate this situation and would like other people's opinions on this.
Thanks.
TLDR: I did some things after breaking up which led to her finding them out and breaking the trust when we got back together. Now she doesn't show any type of affection.

Been kicking it at home recently browning out and watching the entirety of south park on DVD and last night watched the episode where Towelie begins to huff computer duster as a way to become high. This got me thinking again of the media's glamorous and wrongful portrayals of many drugs in the media however inhalants seem to be the most poorly represented both in terms of effects and in terms of risk. Below I have pasted a youtube link to the episode to which I am referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDVWl3eLPU
Firstly I have to say that the animators and writers got the aggression exactly right. After certain laws were passed in the 90s restricting minors from purchasing glue as well as putting less intoxicants into the glue itself, my brother, our friends, and I would get ripped on this stuff day in and day out. The best way I can describe the high off of computer duster is a headrush, followed by your entire body becoming chilled, a short lived feelings of euphoria, confusion, and eventually a long and dreary comedown followed by up to 3 hours of aggression. Computer duster seems to impair the brains executive function and causes the user to resort to physical or verbally abusive means when comfronted with inconvienince. Ill never forget our friend Jackson we were kickin it in the woods one night poppin blunt after blunt polishin those off with bong rips then someone had the bright idea ta bring out the duster. One huff in Jackson became extremely aggressive and shoved our friend Tommy down Tommy almost fell into the fire we had going luckily he narrowly missed this could have ended in disaster this was followed up him callin up his girlfriend and listing everything he hated about their relationship and finally ending things with her on the phone right there in the middle of the woods. It took 3 of us to hold Jackson down all the while being verbally berated around 3 hours later he began to low out and brown out the next morning he had a killer migraine headache and couldn't remember shit until we began to piece it together for him. He called his girlfriend but she had already moved on.
This is one aspect of huffing duster that south park got EXACTLY right, the way Towelie verbally abuses the cashier before retreating to his car.
HOwever one major aspect of dusting the writers of south park have missed is the bouts of diarrhea, hemmorhoids, and general bowel problems that are caused as a result. When we eat or drink quickly, we swallow a lot of air which eventually causes us to burp or fart as a result. Think of this, but instead of swallowing small pckets of air when eating, you are huffing can after can of 98% air, and 2% intoxicating propellant. The air begans to form a pocket in your intestine which causes a lot of farting, which in turns irritates your bowel lining and casues problems such as diarrhea, IBS, and hemmorhoids. When my brother and I were full on dusting, we had the runniest, wateriest shits maybe a dozen times a day , and we are both still reeling in the aftershocks of severe hemmorhoids.
Another important thing to note is that by 2012, much of the USA had already passed laws surrounding the use of intoxicating propellants in computer duster, freon, etc. A handful of counties held out scattered around the lower 48, but every year the number that sells intoxicating duster dwindles . Many propellants used in spray paint, computer duster, etc use a chemical called Debroxyl Monomethyldehydrachloride, which acts as a neutral substance in the body and is such absorbed the the white blood cells and is not intoxicating. This does not change the fact that despite these laws, many inhalants and dusters still contain POISONOUS chemicals, even if they are not intoxicating such as Hyrdamethylden Sachharide, Tridehydrated Polyphosphate, and Nungen Glutemate.
At our highest my brother n I were dusting about a can a day between the two of us much less than the 2000 a day used by Towelie as shown in the short although, in my opinion this is clearly satire. Stay safe out there don't forget to read up on legislation regarding propellant and intoxicant chemical use in your county.
To any young people out there reading this do yourself a favor and stick to pot or nothing at all. How do I know? Let's just say I've been doing this a long time and reeling in many consequences. Remember life is a celebration- cheers

In Love Island it’s either couple up or get kicked out, so get ready for daily drama! We are an 18+ Discord roleplay server based off of the reality TV show Love Island, and are looking for more members to rp their characters as part of the cast. We run multiple exciting and unique weekly events for characters to compete for date privileges and the hideaway, and new characters are allowed to take anyone they want on dates when they join.
Right now, we have just begun our third IC week and are recruiting for the Casa Amor section of this season. We are looking for 5 or more characters to complete the cast for Casa Amor. This means your first character will have a greater chance of going home, but we can assure you priority in our character queue for your second characters.
Casa Amor will begin in about 5 days, spots are filling up, so apply soon!
If you join after we've already reached capacity, we'll put you in the queue and do our best to get you in in a timely manner, but it could be a few weeks. Please be patient!
We are a very welcoming, friendly, inclusive, and diverse group. All identities are welcome and appreciated.
With all of this in mind, here are a few disclaimers:
• If you are not someone who fares well with IC drama, this is not the server for you.
• Be prepared to work for your character’s position in the game, no one else will work for you.
• This is not a smut server. We allow smut, but if you are looking to write smut and smut alone, we are not the server for you.
• We have a short screening process, so be prepared to answer a couple of questions and submit a writing sample.
Hope to see you on the island!
https://discord.gg/seWFC4j4QR

Current specs: 2019 iMac, 64gb RAM, 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB
External monitors x 2 (HP via OWC Thunderbolt 4 adapter / Dell into Thunderbolt 4 on Mac)
Lacie BigRAID drives (16tb) x 4 into OWC adapter, daisy chained
I edit a lot of video on Final Cut. Multiple large projects, lots of 4k camera angles and audio tracks.
My Mac crashes 2-4 times a day. It just seizes up, waits, and reboots. I don't even get the spinning wheel - it just freezes seemingly randomly. I am convinced it's something to do with the way I am plugging stuff into it but don't have proof!
I am looking at upgrading to a Mac Studio, so what I want to know is, am I going to run into problems there as well based on the way I am plugging my stuff into it?
I am going for : Apple M1 Ultra with 20-core CPU, 48-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine, 128gb RAM
Is that going to be powerful enough? I
I will probably buy the Studio in the next few days and want to make sure it's going to be capable of doing what I need. Any advice on this would be very valuable to me!

6th Moon, 200 AC Ella's Solar Ashemark
The doors out to the balcony of Ella's solar hung open, the warm afternoon breeze filtering in through the drapes while the Lady of Ashemark stood watching over the lands below them. She held a crystal goblet filled with Arbor gold, tapping idly against it as she listened to her sister speak.
"Her speeches in the town have been drawing more and more support. I know you don't think much of her, and I wouldn't be worried either but the topics of these speeches... Ella she's dragging you through the mud." Perianne hung back inside the solar, watching from the shade for Ella's reaction.
"And what would you have me do? Arrest her? She's still my sister, Perianne. Besides, if I arrest her over a handful of speeches what does that say about me?" She took a drink from her glass, before turning back and stepping inside. "No, she's not done anything to threaten me, she can have her opinions if she wants. I'll keep doing what I always do; building our economy up. They can't argue with being wealthier."
Perianne sighed. "Very well, I can't force you to do something about it. I'll keep an eye on her." She smiled and retreated from the room.
Willow perked up as Perianne left and Ella's attention turned back to her, reaching once again for the half-written letters they had been working on before they were interrupted. Ella sank into the chair beside her, draping her legs over the other woman, sighing. "She worries too much, it's tiring."
"She's only looking out for you, you know?"
"I do, but that doesn't mean I enjoy being lectured about her perceived plots." She shook her head, finishing her drink and setting it aside. "I'd rather sit and drink with you than worry myself with exaggerated concerns."
"Maybe after we've finished our actual business we can see to your other business." Willow rolled her eyes, reaching to fill her own glass again. "Do you really think her worries are overblown?"
"Of course. I might not think much of Mina but she's hardly a kinslayer." She leaned forward, taking Willow's glass in hand before she could take a drink and downing it herself. "And nobody's making a septa of me any time soon."
Willow laughed. "I know that much is true. Still, it worries me; it could get out of hand if you're not careful."
"I am exactly as careful as I need to be to still be fun." She reached over, brushing a lock of the steward's hair behind her ear. "Everything will be fine, dear. I promise. Now, let's finish those letters of yours while we still have time in the day for after."

Incident one:
This happened last year, and someone who I thought was a friend invited me round to his place. He sexually assaulted me and when I sent him an upset instagram message afterwards, he brushed it off and said it was no biggie, but changed his username and deleted his pictures. This was the first sexual encounter I’d ever had with anyone and severely traumatised me.
He graduates soon (he goes to my university) and will probably be moving back to wherever his hometown is. I have the option to anonymously report him to my university.
Incident two:
This happened just under a month after the previous one.
This guy was a stranger who approached me after I got off the train in my town and started flirting with me and asked for my number.
He walked back with me as he lived close to me, and when we got under a dark tunnel with no one around, he sexually assaulted me. I was too scared to get angry at him because he was a scary looking person so continued walking for my safety. He kept touching and kissing me as we walked and begged me to come back to his house. I told him I’d meet him at the train station tomorrow morning to shut him up.
I decided to just keep walking as I was nearly at my house so I would be safe soon. He wanted to drop me off at mine but I lied about where I live, so he didn’t find out where it was.
He texted me afterwards. I told a friend who messaged him telling him to leave me alone.
He approached me about two months ago, at about 6:30 AM at the same train station, asking me why I told her and said it was weird.
He still lives locally but I’ll hopefully be moving away soon.

So I called my best friend of 12 years, a week ago, to check up on him. We are used to calling each other like once a month, but we always pick up right where we left off. But this time I hadn’t called him in 3 months because I was super busy with my master’s application abroad. Soon as he picked up, he wasn’t excited, which he usually was, and his lack of energy was palpable. I hit him with usual questions, how’s life, how’s your degree going and stuff, to which he said he didn’t feel like talking. I pressed on and asked how his health was. For context, he has a history of drug/alcohol abuse since 2016. In January of 2022, I had a winter break and his mum called me directly without his knowledge and informed me as to how worse his situation had gotten and that all his friends nearby were druggies. I packed my bag and left, as he lives in another city. I stayed over at his place for a week, which was his mum’s idea. I tried to talk him out of drugs and reminded him of the time we both were once unofficial addiction counsellors in our time at boarding school and would tell other fellows not to use any stuff and that he’s using substances he once advised against. Also when his other friends came over I scared them away by saying I’ll inform about their activities to authorities if they ever came here. All in all, my stay seemed to be productive and he didn’t use any drug. After that his mother would regularly call me once a week and tell me that he is back to his best and performing well at university. I couldn’t have been happier. Fast forward to end of 2022, he relapsed. This time his mum didn’t call me because she was embarrassed. I found about all this when I called him a week ago. I was devastated and when I mustered some courage, decided to call his mum and she said he wasn’t using drugs that much and that he’s just going through severe depression and anxiety and it’s taking a toll on him and that I should just pray for him to get better.
This is so painful for me as I don’t have many friends and that he is my best-friend. I didn’t befriend many people at boarding and at university I didn’t make even a single one. I was excited that I’d be going abroad for my masters next month until I called him. I feel like an absolute failure now. The fact that he was always more brilliant than me and that he was the one who pushed me out of my comfort zone to achieve good grades and everything. Deep down I feel like my upward trajectory has been due to him. Reminiscing about boarding school time used to be my favourite now it’s excruciating.

In Love Island it’s either couple up or get kicked out, so get ready for daily drama! We are an 18+ Discord roleplay server based off of the reality TV show Love Island, and are looking for more members to rp their characters as part of the cast. We run multiple exciting and unique weekly events for characters to compete for date privileges and the hideaway, and new characters are allowed to take anyone they want on dates when they join.
Right now, we have just begun our third IC week and are recruiting for the Casa Amor section of this season. We are looking for 5 or more characters to complete the cast for Casa Amor. This means your first character will have a greater chance of going home, but we can assure you priority in our character queue for your second characters.
Casa amor will begin in about 5 days, spots are filling up, so apply soon!
If you join after we've already reached capacity, we'll put you in the queue and do our best to get you in in a timely manner, but it could be a few weeks. Please be patient!
We are a very welcoming, friendly, inclusive, and diverse group. All identities are welcome and appreciated.
With all of this in mind, here are a few disclaimers:
• If you are not someone who fares well with IC drama, this is not the server for you.
• Be prepared to work for your character’s position in the game, no one else will work for you.
• This is not a smut server. We allow smut, but if you are looking to write smut and smut alone, we are not the server for you.
• We have a short screening process, so be prepared to answer a couple of questions and submit a writing sample.
Hope to see you on the island!
https://discord.gg/seWFC4j4QR

This is a study I've done on McCarthy's second latest book, The Passenger. Combined with Stella Maris, McCarthy's new offering is food for thought and possibly too rare for some to digest. Maligned on its release by mixed reviews and the curveball style, I argue that McCarthy's new book (as some have honestly said already) not only works beautifully within his own canon but may in fact surpass his previous works in scope and severity.

The Passenger : Disappointment?

​
In general, I think books now are very expensive and you deserve an explanation. McCarthy’s work is singular and works far outside the industry metrics of relatability and delivery. We read his work as a living herald of the world itself, without the limitations of what would make a book “successful” or “marketable.” Regardless of critic or consumer response, his two new novels, "The Passenger" and "Stella Maris," have not only sold well but have also augmented his canon remarkably.
In spite of this, people are calling this book a disappointment. Critics have called it disjointed, rambling, even incoherent at times. Instead of sweeping Western and existential passages, we have punctual dialogue, descriptions of great modern conundrums like the JFK assassination and the effects of nuclear warfare on the human race, and the nature of the organisms who have convened such a nightmarish reality.
Today, we are going to reconsider this novel and hopefully salvage readers’ investment from the depths. We’ll be looking at the novel’s central themes and how we can rationally approach it as an addition to McCarthy’s body of work.

~~~ 

We will start with a timely review, posted the day after Passenger's release.
An article on Slate written by Laura Miller is titled, “

The Grim Return of Cormac McCarthy *
'At 89, McCarthy is publishing two new novels, confused and confusing, arguing that life is brutal and meaningless. Why?

“
Life is brutal and meaningless. This is all anyone seems to draw from Cormac McCarthy novels. In Orchard Keeper, we see a long and ironic friendship between two men who should be mortal enemies, predicated on an unwanted corpse that shows up on the main character’s orchard. In Outer Dark, we follow two siblings who have produced a child together. After the brother attempts to expose the child, it is taken by a traveling merchant and the sister pursues him in an effort to discern the fate of her baby. The brother seems to impotently follow in her shadow, avoiding sudden and haunting accusations. Child of God is equally a meditation on human nature as a victim of fate, the marginalization of the truth, a dejected and ostracized man who is fruitlessly chasing his own humanity. Suttree sees the encroaching menace of civilization in a world of outcasts on the Tennessee River — the son of a wealthy family eludes his former life and mixes with the “lowest” of society to hilarious and transforming effect. Blood Meridian is a discourse on the human will; The Border Trilogy is an exaltation of the human experience in a hostile and rapidly mechanizing world; The Road is the triumph of love over life’s starkest horrors; No Country is a slow acceptance of a transforming world, one in which its morbid commerce is hostile to our basic values. Maybe the last one strikes of nihilism. But where is the confusion and meaninglessness? Countless “journalists” and “scholars” have accused McCarthy’s work of being absent of morality or hope. We must admit that there is a theoretical line distinguishing what exists on the page and what we believe exists on it. McCarthy occurs in the nuances and details, and it is ridiculously unproductive to approach him with our existing conceits about how literature should be.
The Passenger is about a deep diver named Bobby Western who investigates a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico. The plane is almost perfectly intact with even the door still sealed and never tampered with, and yet the plane’s black box is mysteriously missing — also with no evidence of tampering — along with one passenger. The FBI soon approaches him, informing him that the flight was chartered and the number of passengers confirmed at takeoff, meaning there is an absurd gap to be filled. Western offers no answers, and they leave. From that moment he will live on the run, piecing together his past, or what’s left of it, as everything he once held dear is slowly eroded by time and mysterious deaths.
The other parallel half of the novel centers on his sister, Alicia, at a different point in time (one is to infer that her portion occurred before the events in Bobby's story). She is much younger than him. Both of them are geniuses — she is considered the greater of the two — and she is suffering from schizophrenia, generally conversing with a flipper-limbed character called The Thalidomide Kid. Thalidomide was a brief-run medication thought to help symptoms of nausea during pregnancy that ended up causing extreme deformities like we see in this hallucinated kid — people are born without limbs, or their limbs are small and simple, like actual flippers. The Thalidomide Kid terrorizes her — assaults her with visions of circus shows, an incessant barrage of unanswerable questions, oddly insightful yet obscure inquiries into the nature of knowledge and — above all — clever insults. Alicia is muted and austere by contrast. The Kid speaks through corny, almost antiquated turns of phrase somewhat derisively, and always changes her name when he addresses her. Somewhere in his antics there is a focused and carefully crafted discussion of quantum mechanics — but that’ll be another essay. Bobby and Alicia have been compared to classical figures like Orpheus and Eurydice, to the effect of their relationship and their struggles with the unconscious.
The siblings had an affair at some point in the past. Bobby was a formula one racer in Europe for ten years before the novel begins — he returns to the States to discover a great tragedy that literally starts this book that I will also not spoil. One of the only books whose spoiler is on the first page. Both siblings feature throughout most of the novel, ending with an emphasis on Bobby. Alicia’s book is Stella Maris, actually a prequel to events in The Passenger.
Their father worked at Los Alamos developing the nuclear bomb. This is perhaps the lynchpin of the novel — the siblings live in an exploded world. People are divorced from their own sense and humanity, forced into a state of mediocrity, and all of our precious institutions are — like in other McCarthy novels — being eaten away by a slow burn in the character of the US government, who has intrigue in the conundrum of the missing passenger. Miller, in her Slate article, contends that their father had no regret about his invention while they must bear the burden for him -- a view I find unfounded and possibly invalid against details surrounding their father's fate.
Bobby spends most of the book trying to re-establish his past as it slips away. Places from his childhood are being literally destroyed or robbed, his sense of the world is crushed beneath questions that have no answer. An immediate analogy for the advancement of human intelligence in the nuclear age — we are no longer beholden to coherent truths, but rather enslaved or driven mad by developments that elude all conception, a doctrine antagonistic to the US government’s thirst for absolute control, observing their revision of the JFK assassination documents to reflect the typical explanation. But the control is a vain one; Bobby is smart enough to realize that there are no answers to some things. There is no indication as to the fate of the plane passenger themself, how they could have so perfectly disappeared and why the entire flight is inscrutable due to the total absence of a black box. A proper Schrodinger's box right out of the gate. The entire thing could have been a ploy by the US government to intentionally place Bobby in a precarious spot in order to pin accountability on him, prompting the need to assassinate or remove him. It’s all pure speculation and I don’t believe it’s relevant to the plot. We’ll go into why.
The book has been called rambling, unfocused, generally populated by conversations at diners, bars and restaurants. There are conspiracy theories and descriptions of great events. Characters’ dialogue — or rather, their long monologues — represent different aspects of our humanity, our behaviors, our tendencies, our basic sensibilities. John Sheddan, one of Bobby’s best friends (and the name of one of McCarthy’s real-life friends), is a close comrade and a voice of reason throughout the novel. The real life John Sheddan actually inspired the character Gene Harrogate in Suttree! He refers to Bobby as “Squire,” a general word for a nobleman and often a rustic one. John offers the reader some balm of comprehension, especially in the first half of the book:
p. 137

I know that you think we’re very different, me and thee. My father was a country storekeeper and yours a fabricator of expensive devices that make a loud noise and vaporize people. But our common history transcends much. I know you. I know certain days of your childhood. All but weeping with loneliness. Coming upon a certain book in the library and clutching it to you. Carrying it home. Some perfect place to read it. Under a tree perhaps. Beside a stream. Flawed youths of course. To prefer a world of paper. Rejects. But we know another truth, don't we Squire? And of course it’s true that any number of these books were penned in lieu of burning down the world — which was their author’s true desire. But the real question is are we few the last of a lineage? Will children yet to come harbor a longing for a thing they cannot even name? The legacy of the word is a fragile thing for all its power, but I know where you stand, Squire. I know that there are words spoken by men ages dead that will never leave your heart. Ah, the waiter.

Some have complained about McCarthy’s general tendency to go off on epic digressions of this kind almost importune, but here it has a striking role in the narrative. Bobby and John belong to a world of people who draw life from the past. We increasingly see an encephalopathic tendency to remove the species from its own history through acts of violence and destruction, sequestering people into a terminal if not purgatorial state, endlessly contemplating with nothing to really contemplate and everything contemplatable having been long “vaporized” through our inventions. This is the paradox of progress and technology that McCarthy notes well; he always had great interest in the life of Alexander Grothendieck, arguably one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century who left society to become a goat herder in the Pyrenees mountains. Ted Kaczynski was similarly primed to become a revolutionary thinker, but decided instead to live in solitude and attempt to subvert a technological totality through targeted attacks. Again, conspiracy is a major character in this book: are they true? Aren’t they? Is the reality compatible with our methods of understanding?
The sister, Alicia, is beset by harlequins and phantoms ushered by the Kid, a state of being shared by Bobby, who is essentially talking to people who are hardly more than theoretically alive, divorced from the past and surviving on platitudes and modes that are obsolete. John Sheddan mentions that “common history transcends much.” Don’t we all have a common history? All of Bobby’s friends acknowledge this common history, even if their fates are equally endangered throughout the novel. The erosion of a cohesive thing also smacks of cognitive decline, the senility of the human race. No longer in possession of its standbys or feelings of true commonality, but microwaved into cellular individualities growing more and more remote from one another.
McCarthy writes,
p. 165,

Western fully understood that he owed his existence to Adolf Hitler. That the forces of history which had ushered his troubled life into the tapestry were those of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, the sister events that sealed forever the fate of the West.

Humanity, like most of McCarthy’s characters, is a sad victim of circumstance. His novels are trademarked by our attempts at creating meaning in the face of the absolute void — in my opinion, something far from absolute nihilism, and even his least forgiving novels like Blood Meridian and No Country end up with relatively benign conclusions. McCarthy is not an author enslaved by endings, and he doesn’t have to be. Some of his most innocuous passages are his most injuriously beautiful. Like in the beginning of Outer Dark:

He followed it down, in full flight now, the trees beginning to close him in, malign and baleful shapes that reared like enormous androids provoked at the alien insubstantiality of this flesh colliding among them. Long and long after he should have reached the river he was careering through the woods with his hands outstretched before him against whatever the dark might hold. Until he began to stumble and a cold claw was raking upward through his chest. When he came upon the creek again he splashed into it thigh and crotch before he knew it was there. He stopped, his breath roaring, trying to listen. Very far away lightning quakes once, again, soundlessly.

And like Dostoevsky, whom McCarthy admired, the real world is purely terminal in our experience. It is a sad thing we cannot experience the entire lifespan of the universe; it would seem our minds are most suited to that. Human intelligence is far too advanced for the miserable, mundane and profane existence we are forced to face — which we see in Alicia’s impertinent hallucinations, Sheddan’s epic speech that I quoted punctuated by the waiter arriving at the table, Bobby’s haunting reminiscence on his father’s invention in its only historical deployment:
p. 115,

There were people who escaped from Hiroshima and rushed to Nagasaki to see that their loved ones were safe. Arriving just in time to be incinerated. He went there after the war with a team of scientists. My father. He said that everything was rusty. Everything looked covered with rust. There were burnt-out shells of trolleycars standing in the streets. The glass melted out of the sashes and pooled on the bricks. Seated on the blackened springs the charred skeletons of the passengers with their clothes and hair gone and their bones hung with blackened strips of flesh. Their eyes boiled from their sockets. Lips and noses burned away. Sitting in their seats laughing. The living walked about but there was no place to go. They waded by the thousands into the river and died there. They were like insects in that no one direction was preferable to another. Burning people crawled among the corpses like some horror in a vast crematorium. They simply thought that the world had ended. It hardly even occurred to them that it had anything to do with the war. They carried their skin bundled up in their arms before them like wash that it not drag in the rubble and ash and they passed one another mindlessly on their mindless journeyings over the smoking afterground, the sighted no better served than the blind. The news of all this did not even leave the city for two days. Those who survived would often remember these horrors with a certain aesthetic to them. In that mycoidal phantom blooming in the dawn like an evil lotus and in the melting of solids not heretofore known to do so stood a truth that would silence poetry a thousand years. Like an immense bladder, they would say. Like some sea thing. Wobbling slightly on the near horizon. Then the unspeakable noise. They saw birds in the dawn sky ignite and explode soundlessly and fall in long arcs earthward like burning party favors.

In an interview with Lawrence Krauss, McCarthy disowned the fact that survivors actually did travel from Hiroshima to Nagasaki and were promptly destroyed; it is a perfectly feasible reality anyway. It’s also a way of considering things that reflects the experiences of Alicia and Bobby for reasons you may be aware of. The fact of being a “passenger” is extremely thematic in this book. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Alicia says she wants to be dead. This is treated with humor, but it shows just how ephemeral our existence truly is, and how improper it is to populate life with these pointless schemes, intrigues and questions when we should really use this small allotment to engage in human activity. Love, forgiveness, and solace are all completely absent in this novel. Bobby is fiercely chasing them. Among the most common criticisms of this book, at least as far as reader feedback, is the inability to fit the book into a proper template or story arc. As if a writer of McCarthy’s caliber required these preset “structures” just to convey profound meaning. Few who have once read it will forget The Road's invocation that "There is no God and we are his prophets."
​
The Passenger is, in my opinion, not horribly unique in McCarthy’s body of work. The essence of his style is the activity and behaviors of human beings in the face of erasure and compromise. In The Passenger, we see two sibling geniuses beset by destruction at the hands of others, or perhaps themselves. They smack of the concept of binary fate, which covers the varying behavior of neuron pairs according to repression and expression. Despite being "paired," they can have highly divergent “fates,” if you will. But the end result is invariable. Perhaps Bobby’s efforts to preserve his own past and his own intelligence is a lost cause. Perhaps Alicia was right.
The Passenger is full of people not dissimilar to the victims of the atom bomb in Japan. Defaced, laughing in a state of complete ravishment, carrying their own innards around as they mindlessly collapse in the river. The world is being slowly eaten away, vaporized. The Library of Alexandria is on fire. Is it even worth putting out the flame anymore?
Stella Maris is a shorter and more focused novel than Passenger. It’s Alicia’s discussions with her psychiatrist. But within that novel we find even more key insights into the nature of McCarthy’s “Passenger” universe, where he betrays a reality abstracted by quantum mechanics, “a group of evil and aberrant and wholly malicious partial differential equations who had conspired to usurp their own reality from the questionable circuitry of its creator’s brain not unlike the rebellion which Milton describes and to fly their colors as an independent nation unaccountable to God or man alike.” Nature itself, in its infinite complexity, is Satanically elusive. All of us are merely passengers in an unthinkably confounding universe.
^\Miller's article is a well-balanced overview of McCarthy's oeuvre, vetted by public opinion and his placement in contemporary literature. Overall I find her to be a voice of reason in the radius of his influence and highly recommend this piece as a perspective on the author's newest offerings.)

I (24f), lost my twin sister in January and it pretty much knocked me off my tracks.
The funeral expenses took all of my savings and I lost my job right after that.
It's been pretty tough. I haven't paid rent for past 2 months and my landlord is understanding but she says I'd be evicted if I miss this month's rent. No excuses.
I've got a new job and I'm trying get back on my feet.
I did budget for month's rent but some unexpected car expenses came up. I had to patch one of my car tires yesterday, and now I'm $30 short on rent.
Rent is due today. My landlord already texted me earlier to know if I'd still be paying my rent today as agreed. I tried to explain that I'm a $30 short on rent but she wouldn't respond to my text or calls.
I've been having terrible anxiety and panic attacks because I don't know what to do. I don't really have much friends or family to lean on.
I don't want to be evicted. I don't wanna be homeless. My closest family lives 90 miles away from Pasadena.
I'm ashamed to ask, but I'd be glad if anyone could help me out and save me from all the worry.
I've never been in this situation, this is rock bottom for me. I just thought I'd reach out to someone out there.

The following is an excerpt from Bill Bradley's 'Life on the Run'. I think it's a good insight into the man Willis Reed was, and is worth the (long) read:
"On a hot night in the Garden when his muscles and skin glisten in the spotlight, there is something startlingly elemental about him. It is as if every pore opens and Willis cleanses himself nightly with his effort. I feel better for being a part of his effort. For spectators and teammates alike, the special awesomeness Willis conveys makes one wonder about his past, his background.
Born an only child on his grandfather's 200-acre farm ten miles east of Bernice, Louisiana, Willis knew hard work early. He grew up a country person in the strongest positive sense. Grandparents on both sides of his family were rural Baptists who never touched liquor and preached hard work and self-reliance. After living with the eleven relatives who worked the farm, his parents moved to Bernice, where his father worked for the Linsay Sawmill Company.
As a kid of nine, Willis would get up at 4 a.m. to go fishing on the stream that crossed his grandfather's property. Sometimes he would sneak out his grandfather's shotgun and hunt birds. When he was twelve, Willis was picking 210 pounds of cotton a day at $3.25 per hundredweight. He picked watermelons. He hauled hay. At thirteen, he was "cutting those people's grass" in the white section of Bernice. He saw that all the merchants and gasoline dealers were white, but he did not allow himself to hate. A strong home and good teachers gave him his preparation for life. "My parents taught me to be a good Christian," Willis says, "to work hard and give my boss an honest day on the job and to attend church. When I was in high school, my father still demanded that I be home by 9:30, unless we had a football or basketball game. My mother and father didn't care what I chose for a career, but they wanted me to be a good human being. If that meant hauling hay . . . well, it was no disgrace."
As a thirteen-year-old, Willis came under the influence of a high school basketball coach who stayed after practice with him, teaching him the things about shooting, rebounding, and finesse that Willis's teammates didn't want to know or couldn't do. The coach talked of proper conduct and sportsmanship, and when Willis once lost his temper in the middle of a game, he sent him to the locker room. When Willis had completed the tenth grade the coach at Grambling College promised him a basketball scholarship upon graduation. Although many other schools made the same offer when he was a senior in high school, Willis selected Grambling because he thought its representatives were "honest" and their team played with style like Boston.
Willis's hero was Bill Russell. It wasn't until Grambling went to the national small college tournament that Willis played against a white player. Grambling won the title that year and Willis kept Grambling in the winning column for the next three years. The Knicks, though, made him only their number two draft pick and the Olympic selectors chose Lucius Jackson instead of Willis for the center position on the 1964 Olympic team. Willis was hurt. He thought he deserved to be number one and vowed he would prove that the experts had guessed wrong about his talent.
People underestimated his skill and determination; and throughout the period that followed, and during his later comebacks from injury, Willis lived by the aphorisms of his high school and college coaches who said,
"There's no harm in failing. Just pick yourself up and get back into the race. You run a little harder than the next guy and nobody will ever know you fell."
"A man's reach should exceed his grasp."
"Go for the moon. If you don't get it, you'll still be heading for a star." "

I tested positive for HSV-2 about a week ago, and I can’t figure out how to deal with my sexuality going forward. I'm gonna be very explicit in explaining this because that's just how I am and this issue especially is one that I can't censor myself on. If you don't care about the details, just read the TL;DR's and my question at the end. I've bolded them.
Background: I contracted the virus during the last week of February through unprotected anal sex with someone who believed he was STD-free as he’d been recently tested and had no other sexual partners since then. I got extremely sick a few days later from what I now know was my initial outbreak. I ended up taking an entire week off from work and went to the ER for help because the pain was so bad that I was almost passing out every time I had a bowel movement and I was losing my ability to eat.
The hospital did not test me for herpes, even though I had what I now know were active lesions on my butt. They did test me for a bunch of other things though, including HIV, so I at least had that fear put to bed. I was prescribed antibiotics for my proctitis and sent home. I went to my local Planned Parenthood over a week later when I was feeling better and convinced them to test me for herpes after an initial examination of the marks on my butt, and 4 days later I had a positive result for HSV-2 on my blood test (negative for everything else though, thankfully). They gave me a prescription for Valacyclovir 500 mg to help with outbreaks, and I've been taking it every day since. I'm really hoping to not suffer any significant side effects since I'm already on like 6 other medications for various things.
I let all my recent sexual partners know about my diagnosis, as well as some other guys who had expressed interest in fucking me, even though I hadn’t had sex with anyone else since I became sick and I generally get tested after having sex with a new guy before having sex with anyone else anyway. I actually went to PP to get tested just a few days after having sex, but they said it was too early. The nausea and dizziness and fever and pain started the next day. Unfortunately, I'm not able to inform the guy who gave it to me because he's out of my life and his phone was shut off for not paying his bill. I learned sometime after we first had sex that he apparently doesn't use condoms very often if at all, which is why he has children by multiple women. But hopefully he uses the condoms I gave him, I guess.
TL;DR: Had sex. Got sick. Got tested. Herpes sucks. Don't trust men. Use condoms.
Current Issue: I turned 30 last December and kind of had a sexual awakening. I decided I was tired of turning down guys who want to fuck me or at least not being as intimate as I might want to be with guys I like just because I have a boyfriend. Basically, I decided to be more open about the fact that I'm a huge slut.
My boyfriend and I have sort of always been in an open relationship for the 6 years we've been together. However, me having sex with other guys had always been awkward when it had come up, so we decided to talk about it and make that part of our relationship more official. The rules are pretty simple: Any guys who fuck me either need to wear a condom or provide proof of recent negative STD tests, and I need to tell my boyfriend when I have sex with them. I think I might be polyamorous, so I've been actively trying to meet guys and feel out whether I just want to have a bunch of casual sex friends or maybe something more. My boyfriend is supportive of all of this, as he thinks I'm hot and wants me to feel hot but doesn't feel like fucking me most of the time. Everything was going really great until I broke the proof-or-condom rule for the guy who gave me herpes. In hindsight, the rule really should have just been condom-or-condom because I am terrible at asserting myself, which is why I keep getting sexually assaulted, but I was already having an ongoing sexual relationship with a guy who showed me that he gets tested regularly and wanted to fuck me without condoms.
So now I'm a slut with anal herpes. I still want to have sex, but I think it would be unethical for me to continue to have anal sex, even with condoms, since I would be knowingly prioritizing my sexual pleasure over someone else’s health. Plus, anal sex has always been complicated for me because I have IBS and a lot of anxiety about cleanliness, so this added complication feels like the final nail in the coffin. I would have too much concern about the possibility of infecting someone else to be able to enjoy the sex, not to mention the possibility of future painful outbreaks. And even if I didn't feel this way, anal sex with my boyfriend is definitely gone as an option, as he's terrified of anything that might impact his fertility.
Most people would probably just find other ways to have sex, but unfortunately I'm transgender and I'm planning to have my genitals removed soon and eventually my breasts as well. And I don't really have any other erogenous zones. My butt was my biggest one. So that basically just leaves me with sucking dick as my only option for sex, and no way for me to receive sexual pleasure in turn. And while I do like sucking dick, I feel weird about the prospect of being a one-sided pleasure provider.
Really this just feels like a huge step backwards in life for me. I went through a period of several years of being uncomfortable with anal sex, and it's only recently that I've become more comfortable with it again. It's still been a struggle, but I was working really hard to enjoy it more and explore what I like rather than just providing pleasure for others. I was committed to practicing anal sex for sexual pleasure, and trying to learn how to have an anal orgasm, and now that's all over. Which in some ways is kind of a relief to my anxiety, but mostly it just sucks.
Also it’s easier to say “I just won’t have sex anymore” than it is in practice, especially when there are a bunch of men in my life who want to fuck me. Because a lot of them don't seem to understand my concerns. It seems to me that the reason most men aren't super bothered by me telling them I have herpes is that they don't understand how herpes spreads. Most of the guys I've told immediately said "you just need to use condoms now" or "you just need to take medication for that". They don't seem to understand that the meds only reduce the risk of transmission by 50% and condoms only by 65% (side note: it's annoying that bottoms are more likely to contract HSV-2 from sex than tops, but condoms work better at preventing transmission when the top is the one who has HSV-2). They also don't seem to understand that touching my butt - where the lesions form - can spread the virus even if they don't put their dick inside me. For instance, I think I already spread it to one of my fingers, which became infected sometime during my outbreak and still hasn't fully healed.
So it's not enough for me to just tell a guy "I have anal herpes." I have to give a whole fucking presentation to make sure they understand what that means. Also, my ass is literally the reason most men approach me in the first place, so it feels really shitty to have to respond like "thanks, but you can never touch it!" And if my most recent sexual encounter on Monday night is any indication, trying to move past that is just gonna be a disappointment for everyone involved.
TL;DR: I'm a slut. Anal sex is out. I have no alternative. Guys don't get it.
FEELINGS: You know, I started writing this post to ask for advice, but I don't even know what I'm trying to ask for anymore. I don't want anyone to try to convince me that it's okay for me to continue having sex, because for me, it's not. I don't expect anyone to fully understand the nuances of my relationship to my body and sexuality, because nobody can fully understand anyone else. So, maybe I'm just venting.
I know that I'm very early in the process of living with herpes, but I'm just really upset that I have to deal with this new forever issue for my body on top of everything else. I was finally starting to appreciate some aspects of my body and now a big one is ruined. And I can only blame myself for it because I've learned that most clinics don't test for herpes along with other STDs unless you have symptoms, so I can't blame the guy for not knowing he had it. Unless of course he had symptoms at some point and ignored it, I guess, or if he actually knew he had it and just straight up lied to me, but I'll never know that because he's out of my life.
Either way, it was my responsibility to myself to make him wear a condom, and I completely froze up in the moment and put my own safety aside to make some guy I'd just met happy and avoid an imagined issue. And then I continued to let him fuck me without using condoms because in my mind I was already exposed to anything he had and protecting myself didn't matter anymore, which was fucking stupid. I knew that I didn't feel safe, but I was trying so hard not to make negative assumptions about the guy that I willingly ignored all the red flags. Like the strong possibility that a homeless alcoholic man might not have his life together enough to make knowing his STD status for certain a priority!
I was working really hard to practice being more assertive to protect myself after I got raped in January, and I fucked it up. I broke the rules, I knowingly put myself at risk repeatedly, and now I'm suffering the consequences. What makes it suck even more is how fucked up my relationship to that guy ended up being. Finding out that he gave me herpes a week after we kicked him out of our lives for smoking crack makes everything that came before so much worse. I feel like a fucking idiot for letting this man not only drain us of money, time, and emotional energy for weeks, but also permanently alter the course of my life. It would be so much simpler if the guy who raped me was the one who infected me, but nope, he apparently tested negative for herpes a week ago. I had an easier time contacting the guy who raped me to let him know I have herpes than I did trying to inform the guy who infected me that he has it.
Also, on top of all of that, I had something I felt good about starting with this one guy I met recently, and between me getting sick and spending all my free time trying to take care of an alcoholic, we haven't been able to see each other for a month. And now I don't know for sure if he even wants to continue seeing me. I don't want to deal with him rejecting me, or all the other rejection I might face going forward. I guess I could just retreat into the safety of "I have a boyfriend!" and avoid physical intimacy with other men for the rest of my life, but I crave physical intimacy so much that I get depressed without it, and I can't have much of it with my boyfriend anymore either.
TL;DR: I'm angry at myself. I'm afraid of rejection. I crave physical intimacy.
I figured out what my question is: How can I reconcile the fact that I am a slut with the reality that I can no longer have sex? How can I adjust to the loss of so much physical intimacy when sharing physical intimacy is a core part of who I am? How can I learn to accept living a celibate life that I wouldn't have chosen if not for this disease?

Well, well, well, my fellow Redditors, today I come to you with a pressing matter that demands our immediate attention. You see, there's this wholesome heckin' chonker out there that we all know and love - Big Chungus. Yes, you heard me right, Big Chungus. Now, as devoted worshipers of the majestic Chungus, it is our responsibility to keep track of his every move, even if it means calculating the circumference and volume of his massive form.
So, without further ado, let's get to it. After conducting some extensive research (a quick Google search), I have discovered that Big Chungus is, in fact, a wholesome heckin' chonker, more commonly known as a red giant. Now, I know what you're thinking - "why on earth would anyone want to calculate the circumference and volume of a red giant named Big Chungus?" Well, my dear friends, the answer is simple - we must defend Big Chungus's honor and prove to the world just how truly massive and awe-inspiring he is.
So, let's start with the circumference. According to my research, the average circumference of a red giant is approximately 1 billion kilometers. Now, I know that may sound like a lot, but we're talking about Big Chungus here - a chonker of legendary proportions. So, let's assume that Big Chungus is at least twice the size of the average red giant, which would put his circumference at a whopping 2 billion kilometers.
Next up, we have the volume. Now, this one is a bit trickier, but bear with me. According to my research (aka, a quick glance at Wikipedia), the average volume of a red giant is approximately 100 times that of our sun. Again, we're talking about Big Chungus here, so let's assume that he's at least 10 times bigger than the average red giant. That would put his volume at a mind-boggling 1,000 times that of our sun.
Now, I know what you're thinking - "OP, why on earth are you wasting your time calculating the circumference and volume of a red giant named Big Chungus?" Well, my friends, it's all for the sake of defending his honor and reminding the world just how truly awe-inspiring he is. So, the next time someone tries to belittle Big Chungus or question his greatness, just remember these numbers - a circumference of 2 billion kilometers and a volume 1,000 times that of our sun.
In conclusion, my fellow Chungus worshipers, let us continue to stand by our beloved wholesome heckin' chonker and defend his honor at all costs. Whether it's through scientific calculations or simply spreading the word of his greatness, let us never forget the impact that Big Chungus has had on our lives and the world as a whole.

Before you read any further, check out our Unit Culture Primer to see what we’re all about.
NATO JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND
US CENTCOM
OPERATION MYRMIDON
3D COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE “ROUGH RIDERS”
The 3rd Combined Joint Task Force, colloquially known as the Rough Riders, is a special purpose task force created by NATO JSOC with the intent of deterring CSAT influence in the Mediterranean and abroad. Falling under US Central Command, the Rough Riders are a unit hand picked from volunteers across all NATO/ANZUS operating forces. Typically, the Rough Riders are attached to conventional NATO forces to serve as force multipliers. They specialize in Direct Action, Counter-Insurgency, Special Reconnaissance, and forward observation for NATO fire support assets.
What we do:
The year is 2026, and the world stands poised for great change. With rising tensions in the Middle East and the Pacific, a new world power has emerged: the Canton protocol Strategic Alliance (CSAT). Premiered by China and Iran, this new treaty organization stands poised to threaten NATO's long-reigning global military hegemony. A new Cold War has begun.
In the face of this new threat, NATO Joint Special Operations Command has authorized the formation of a special purpose unit to directly intervene against CSAT’s growing sphere of influence. As a member of the Rough Riders, you will witness firsthand the years leading up to ArmA 3’s “The East Wind” campaign and the vibrant political climate of 2035. Your actions and the actions of your brothers in arms will tell the story of NATO defiance in the face of CSATs rise to power. You’ll have epic tales to tell, comrades to mourn, and more than enough action.
In the Rough Riders, we put storytelling and fun at the forefront. With a wonderful team of Game Masters and Writers, we aim to give you those “movie moments” and incredible stories of heroism, intense combat, and even hilarity when ArmA decides to ArmA somebody (or all of us).
What can I expect from the Rough Riders?

• A welcoming, friendly environment.
• Training without the boredom! If this is your first time ever playing ArmA that’s perfectly fine!
• Work Hard, Play Harder Mentality.
• Leadership and promotion opportunities.
• Your feedback to be valued, regardless of how new you are.
• The freedom to switch between roles without a stuffy MOS system.
• Roleplay.

What do the Rough Riders expect from me?

• Willingness to learn, follow orders, and contribute to the success of the team.
• To respect your fellow Rough Riders.
• A working microphone.
• A sense of humor.

What does “Accessible Milsim” mean?
In the Rough Riders, we've built our community around making the junior enlisted experience as drama-free as possible. We believe that solid milsim operations can still work without suffocating our enlisted with constricting MOS systems and countless hours of basic training. The idea is that new members can join the unit, download the mods and jump right into the action.
This is made possible by increasingly serious levels of milsim orientation the further up the chain of command you go. Your average player can jump right into fun and challenging operations if their Fireteam and Squad Leaders have the adequate training and mentality. By volunteering to try for a leadership position, you increase your commitment and seriousness level.
Accessible milsim means that you choose the level of dedication and milsim seriousness that you want. From casually showing up to be boots on the ground blowing stuff up, to managing training and combat leadership, all the way to the paperwork simulator that comes with an officer commission.
You get out what you put in.
Training:
You don't need to be a grizzled ArmA veteran to join the Rough Riders. Our simple training program is intended to bring even brand new players up to speed without killing them with boredom. You can expect to learn the following:
- TFAR Setup
- Rough Riders Intro (who we are, what we do, expectations-both ways)
- Intro to Unit Life (who you are, what you'll be doing as a new member, chain of command)
- Role Interest Declaration (helps us shape and personalize your training)
- ArmA Basics
- ACE Basics
- TFAR Basic Training
- Common Sense Combat/Fireteam Training
- CQB Basic Training
Between deployments, we do a garrison rotation that is focused on catching any new members up to speed and helping veteran members and NCOs grow and improve. The Hebontes schedule is a several week process. This allows for the writing/zeusing team to have time to create a quality deployment with all the necessary lore bits and planning considerations, while giving the unit time to relax and make mistakes in a controlled and learning-focused environment.
Opportunities:
Rough Riders members fill a multitude of roles, and are allowed to switch between them for different missions so long as they have passed the appropriate training. Roles available to Rough Riders are:
-Zeus
-**Rifleman/Designated Marksman
-AT/AA Specialist
- Automatic Rifleman
-Grenadier
-Radio Operator
-Combat Medic/ MEDEVAC Medic
-Combat Engineer
-Artilleryman/Fire Direction Officer
-Rotary-wing Aircraft Crew/Pilot
-Fixed-wing Aircraft Pilot
-IFV/APC Crew/Commander
-Media ReporteJournalist
Leadership opportunities are made available to interested members who are noted to possess technical competency and the ability to communicate effectively. Through a program we call the Warrior Leaders Course, NCO candidates are put to the test via a series of written and field exams. We have systems in place for leadership development too- so if you’re not ready to lead now (but want to), we can teach you how to be a leader.
Community members may join our writing/zeusing team and contribute to the development of our world in-game. It is expected that these individuals be team players overall, and be able to understand and support the bigger picture as determined by the administration team. At the end of the day it's about making sure the players had fun, and telling a memorable story/giving them opportunities to have stories about the operation- not about how cool you are as a Zeus.
**Designated Marksman/Sniper School is open to Rough Riders with a score of 38+ (Expert) on their Rifle Qual, who have achieved the rank of Lance Corporal. Members are eligible for promotion to Lance Corporal after one (1) full deployment with the unit.
Operations:
We operate Monday/Friday/Saturday starting at ~7pm-~8pm EST. Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday are off days and Squad Leaders may run trainings if requested or if they see fit. Members typically play other games in the discord together on these off days as well.
There is no mandatory attendance expectation- we want to see you around, but everyone understands that real life comes first.
We operate on a deployment system, meaning that we spend prolonged periods of time in various regions of the world participating in roughly 1-2 month long persistent environments. Between these deployments we dedicate a few weeks to retraining the unit, catching new players up on anything they haven't already figured out during their deployment, and testing NCO candidates while our Zeus/Writer team works on the next deployment.
Information:
Founded September 2018, Rough Riders is actively seeking new members to help increase our core of dedicated players. We operate with a reinforced platoon (~40ish) that includes infantry and a myriad of support elements also manned by our members.
The Rough Riders consists of primarily North American (NA) members, and so most things are scheduled with that in mind. We do however have an international community with wonderful members from places like Australia, Laos, Russia, and elsewhere. Anybody and everybody is welcome in the Rough Riders- we just ask that you are able to speak, read, and understand English.
To join, simply join our discord and introduce yourself! No application necessary, and no sitting through hours of tedious basic training just to blow things up.
Check out some badass screenshots!: https://imgur.com/a/MEvB9by
Our discord server: https://discord.gg/KEKeawr
Our Official Arma 3 Unit page: https://units.arma3.com/unit/3djtf

First, we have an event that led the springlock suits to be decommissioned

After learning of an unfortunate incident at the sister location, involving multiple and simultaneous springlock failures.

Then phone guy mentions that the spring bonnie suit was moved

Management has also been made aware that the Spring Bonnie Animatronic has been noticeably moved

Finally, he says the safe rooms are going to be sealed in most locations

due to budget restrictions, the previously mentioned safe rooms are being sealed at most locations, including this one.

In the Follow Me minigame, the safe room seems to be wide open. So it must be before the rooms were sealed up. You can argue that he said it's only going to be sealed in most locations. But here's a catch.
The phone dude mentions he found the tapes, this come from the good lead he was tracking down, probably talking about the boarded-up extra room. He sounds quite anxious because until this point, he wasn't finding anything useful to put in his attraction. He even suggests to suit you in a furry suit to scare the customers if he doesn't find anything. On night two he talks about he two discoveries following the aforementioned lead, he found the tapes and he found springtrap. My point is the tapes belong to this place.
When the phone guy says "including this one" he is talking specifically about this place. I suck when it comes to freddy's locations, but here what I think I know. Fnaf 1 location was the place where the first mci happened, it got terminated and left to rot, almost a decade later it opens again (fnaf 1 events), then it closes. Decades later, phone dude buys the place and tries to open Fazbear's frights. First, these tapes are timely sorted, from the oldest to the newest. Months or even years may have passed between each tape. The only limits here are fnaf 1 location must be open and the phone guy must be alive. Some tapes were recorded to address springlock suits problems, than years later he records a tape to address the safe rooms being sealed up. Oh, it doesn't make sense! Did he record only these tapes? Why recorded a new one? Probably he recorded much more, basically all our interactions are with him are pre-recorded. After all these years only the ones phone dude found survived. And tape played on night 5 is a time after the previous ones, maybe years. Probably recorded during the first mci.
This "due to budget restrictions" line seems to be a major cover up, they saw William trapped in the room and they decided to boarded the safe rooms in all locations to avoid arousing suspicions. I like how in some narrated timelines they put as Henry saw William trapped in the room, alive, and decided to board up the room. Something that may enhance this theory is that as soon as William is freed from that room/restaurant. well, few years later Henry is back in action and proceeds to finish his job.
Now the problems, this pushes William's death and Follow Me to take place before fnaf 1 and before phone guy's death. The location was rotten and abandoned during follow me, so it may have happened before fnaf 1 location reopened. William went there, dismantled FOUR animatronics and got sprung. Someone, probably Henry, saw the situation and ordered the sealing up of all safe rooms and almost all locations, fixed the animatronics and reopened the place. I don't know how on Earth it would work, at least with my current understand of the events. And it also straight up denies the molden mci, I am a molden mci denier btw. Follow Me was a single rainy night.
TLDR: Fnaf 3 tapes were recorded throughout the years, William died before fnaf 1 and before the phone guy.

Hey, ya'll. I'm trying to create a cinematic footage for a video I'm working on and I need some ideas.
The goal is to get cinematic footage similar to what ParryGod has in his videos and I'm looking for a camera mod that will allow me to get cool angles and shots, as well as a way to make my character immortal and warp them on location, change their appearance, spawn items for costumes, etc. Possibly manipulate creatures and NPCs as well.
I have a lvl 230+ character that I did 100% achievements run on (and just enjoyed going through several NG+ after)... And I hope not to get it and any other future characters banned, so any ideas are more than welcome.
It's pretty much a given that all of this stays in Single Player Offline mode, however I'm not a 100% sure how FromSoft detects if you've cheated when you log back in so if I need to delete all my save data with the "cheat items" I have no issue with that... Just want to know how I can backup my normal character so they don't get axed as well.
If you have any ideas on how to do it in DS1 and DS2 as well, rather than spamming every sub-reddit, I would appreciate you and praise you even more than the Sun.
P.S. I'm running the DS3 version on PC, as well as DS: Remastered and DS2: SOTF.

Normally leaks and such get deleted almost immediately when posted but since like a week or so the leaks get posted and they’re not getting removed. Why is this? I mean we can also find them on Twitter and YouTube now which is weird because they were deleting them until 2 weeks ago Are they planning on releasing something soon? Or is it just that they don’t care anymore? It’s a genuine question😅

Im taking a break from college because studying just isnt working for me at the moment, my adhd makes it impossible for me to focus and concentrate and I want to go on this adventure and continue when I get back. My best friend and I have been planning this trip for 2 years but since things have not been going well at college my parents forbid me to go. Tonight is the night im going to tell them im still going. Im just venting and seeking support here because im losing my mind overthinking and worrying. Didnt get any sleep as well. How can I cope with this?